Thus his sons did for him as he had commanded them,
Jacob has died in Egypt, far from the land God promised his family. His sons obeyed his burial charge, and that obedience carries a family history, a refusal to settle in Egypt, and a hope that reaches past the grave.
A Family Pattern of Obedience
Jacob's sons were doing what Isaac's sons had done before them. This was not one man's private wish. Each generation acted on a promise none of them had yet seen kept.
Hamilton SmithGod had revealed Himself to Abraham as the Almighty, and as the God of resurrection. He had assured him that He had given him the land where he was a stranger — all the land of Canaan — as an everlasting possession (Gen. 17:8). All was his by promise, though not yet in possession... In the same faith, at a later date, the sons of Isaac bury their father at Hebron, in the land of Canaan (Gen. 35:27-29). So, too, in due time, Jacob dies in Egypt, yet his sons bury him in faith in the land of Canaan, in the cave of Machpelah (Gen. 50:13). With the same fine faith, Joseph, when he came to die, makes the children of Israel swear that they will carry his bones from Egypt to the land of Canaan (Gen. 50:25-26; Ex. 13:19).
Egypt Was Never Home
Egyptian custom shaped part of the funeral. But there was a line Jacob would not let his sons cross.
F. B. HoleThey were in Egypt, so they kept the burial customs of that land up to a certain point. But Jacob's body was not to lie embalmed in an Egyptian tomb. By Jacob's desire, as well as Joseph's, it was to lie in the land of promise. The promise of God was a reality to their faith, since "Faith is the substantiating of things hoped for" (Heb. 11:1, Darby Translation). The things hoped for are real, and faith substantiates them, or makes them real, to us.
A Claim Staked on the Land
Jacob gave this charge more than once, and the repetition carries weight. Death did not cancel what God had promised him.
Numerical Bible NotesFirst, Jacob dies, and is buried. Again we find him charging, this time all his sons, to bury him with his fathers in Machpelah. Do we not need the impressive reiteration that the promise of life is all untouched by death? The living man sends his dead body in to take possession in hope of his inheritance.
Why the Bones Mattered
The care these men took over their dead bodies can look strange today. It said something about what they expected God to do with those bodies.
J. G. BellettThe patriarchs of the Jewish family all put special value on their dead bodies. They laid them up with great care in Machpelah. This care and zeal of theirs was the confession of their sure and certain hope of resurrection. But they connected resurrection with the land of Canaan. And so Jacob and Joseph, who died in Egypt, arranged for their bones to be carried over and laid in Canaan. This tells us that their hope of resurrection was the same as their hope of finally possessing the promised land.
The Disputed Route
The mourning at the threshing floor of Atad happened somewhere on the way, and commentators differ over where. The phrase "beyond the Jordan" can be read from either bank, depending on where you imagine the writer standing.
Morrish Bible DictionaryThe context in Gen. 50:11 indicates "mourning" as a part of the name. It was the threshing floor of Atad "beyond Jordan." This would seem to place the seven days' mourning on the east of Jordan, before the body was carried into Canaan, for burial: compare Gen. 50:12-13. But some hold that Moses by "beyond Jordan" means the west, because his own standpoint was the east... It is not identified.
From Pledge to Celebration
A splendid funeral once carried a meaning it no longer carries.
J. G. BellettIn other days funerals were to be magnificent. This was because resurrection was then only in prospect, and funerals then were a kind of pledge of the expected resurrection. It was fitting that the pledge should be magnificent, matching the glory of what it pledged. But now resurrection has become real in the person of the Lord Jesus, the Son of God. So the grand funeral, like the ceremonious worship, is instead a reproach. It is as though the great mystery itself had not yet become real in its substance and power. Funeral pomp is not the pledge of our coming resurrection now. The resurrection of the Lord is that pledge, the firstfruits of a promised harvest.
Summary
- Charge — Jacob told all his sons where to bury him, and he said it more than once.
- Carried — the sons obeyed, as Isaac's sons had done before them. They buried their father in Canaan, not in Egypt.
- Claim — the grave staked out promised ground. A dying man sent his body ahead to take hold of an inheritance he had never owned.
- Confession — the care over their bones declared one hope. They expected resurrection in the land God had promised.
- Celebration — their splendid funeral pledged a resurrection still to come. Christ has risen, so His resurrection is now the pledge. Ours needs no display.